


Panic Buttons

by Crowlows19



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 15:29:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21376375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crowlows19/pseuds/Crowlows19
Summary: Cassie, Conner, and Bart go looking for a wayward Robin. Then they witness Bruce Wayne parenting Tim Drake and accidentally start the biggest rumor the superhero community has ever seen. Oops.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Bruce Wayne
Comments: 19
Kudos: 861





	Panic Buttons

“Well, I think we should go find him,” Bart said, idly stuffing his eighth slice of meat lovers pizza into his mouth. “He’d do the same for us.”

“Yeah, but you know Tim,” Cassie said. “He’s probably holed up somewhere with his computer and a giant bag of M&Ms, kicking cyber butt.”

“True,” Conner agreed. “But it’s been three weeks and I haven’t even gotten a sarcastic GIF from him. We should just go check.”

“Fine,” Cassie sighed, feeling strangely nervous about the whole situation. “I’ll go with you guys. But let’s try to keep a low profile. I don’t want to have to sit through any more of Batman’s lectures.” 

“Yeah, those suck,” Bart mumbled around his pizza. “That guy just talks and talks and talks. I never listen to the full thing.”

“Which is probably why he always says the same thing to you,” Conner said with a grin. 

00000

They had been meeting to discuss the very concerning subject of what had happened to the fourth member of their little group. Tim was always spotty on the communications but he was usually active enough in the group text that they were never overly concerned about his silences. And there was always the news stories coming out of Gotham City about what Batman and Robin were up to. Those, at least, kept Conner from worrying. 

But the last three weeks had been different. 

Tim hadn’t come to Titans Tower, he wasn’t texting them in the group text or individually, and the news was only reporting on Batman. Robin seemed to have dropped out of the picture. Everyone they’d talked to from Superman to Beast Boy hadn’t been too concerned, having all gone through their own Robins disappearing suddenly only to come back with a couple of bruises and a wild story to tell about the new tricks they’d learned while training in some remote, far off location. 

The superheroes were all used to it. 

But they still thought something was off. 

Tim had never left without letting them know before. That was just expected. 

00000

Conner had learned a trick from Superman about how to track people through their heartbeats and, for the first time ever, had used it to track Tim to an apartment in the heart of Old Gotham. 

“This way,” he said, leading them to the sixth floor of the ancient looking building, listening intently. They finally stopped in front of apartment 653, a corner unit that Conner was convinced was Tim’s.

They knocked several times before Cassie, annoyed, kicked the door off its hinges, splintering the door jamb and breaking the eight deadbolts that had been installed. 

“This is definitely his,” Bart said when they got a clear look at the inside of the apartment. 

Walking into the apartment was dangerous due to the piles of paper, pizza boxes, and red string crisscrossing the whole space from one end of the living room to the other. There were printouts, photos, and sticky notes covering nearly every surface including the walls, ceiling, part of the floor, and even the furniture. 

If Conner hadn't been certain that this was simply part of Tim's process he would have thought the other boy had finally gone insane. Standing to the side of this mess, looking as if he was simply taking it all in, was Tim. 

He was barefoot, wearing jeans, no shirt, and his hair hadn't seen shampoo in at least a week. Based on the dark circles under his eyes, he hadn't slept in that long either. 

"Tim?" Cassie asked cautiously.

Tim turned to look at them, clearly surprised to see them, and smiled happily.

"I solved it!" he exclaimed. 

Conner, Bart, and Cassie then had to endure forty-five minutes on Tim's couch as he gave them a full detailed account of the murder case he was working. He had apparently not only linked it to an unknown serial killer targeting college girls at Gotham University but he had managed to pinpoint additional victims spanning the last two decades. 

Conner was impressed; Cassie uninterested; Bart had stopped listening. 

"So who's the guy?" Conner asked. 

"Uh," Tim grunted, grabbing what seemed to be a random red string and following it all the way to the corner where it ended at a picture. He took it down and handed it to them. 

"Professor Marcus Landry," he said. "Chemistry professor and all around general sleaze. He's been reprimanded a dozen times in the last thirty years for inappropriate behavior with a student."

"That's really impressive, Tim," Cassie said, sounding as if she was simply pandering to him and was not impressed in the slightest. Conner knew that Cassie had very little time for Tim's tendency to ignore things like sleep and food. She thought he was putting himself at an unnecessary risk, something that ran against her training as an Amazon. "Is this why no one has been able to contact you?"

"No," Tim replied. "That's just because Bruce didn't want me to work this case. He's gonna be so mad when he finds out."

"How mad?" Conner asked, concerned. They'd heard rumors; everyone in the superhero community had heard rumors. Batman was cold to Robin; that they had seen for themselves but he was cold to everyone so they had always assumed he was different in private. Why else would someone as awesome as Tim put up with him?

“Like super mad,” Tim said, looking concerned about the prospect. “He doesn’t like it when I go against him like this. That’s why I had to get the apartment. But I solved it!”

“Uh, huh,” Cassie replied and Conner knew without looking at her that she was thinking along the same lines as himself. “How do you plan to get away with this? Now that you’ve solved it?”

“I was going to go back to Titans Tower,” Tim said. “Pretend I’ve been there all along. It’ll take some maneuvering but I think I can trick him into believing it.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Bart said and Conner was very happy that he didn’t have to be the one to say it. “He’ll beat you up.”

“He’s not going to beat me up,” Tim laughed, but his three friends looked at each other, clearly not believing him. After all, everyone seemed pretty scared of Batman, especially in their circles. Back when they had all been in Young Justice, having the Batman descend on them had been some of the most terrifying experiences of their lives. None of them were sure how Tim could seem to like the man so much.

“We should get some food,” Conner said, listening to Tim’s stomach rumble. Even Cassie and Bart could hear it. 

“What should we get?” Bart asked, thoroughly excited at the prospect of food. 

“There’s lots of stuff in Old Gotham,” Tim told them. “I just need pants.”

“You’re wearing pants,” Cassie said. “You need a shirt and shoes.”

“And brush your teeth,” Conner replied.

“Or maybe just take a full shower,” Bart continued. 

“Okay!” Tim said brightly and went into the back bedroom. They heard the water running a couple of minutes later. 

00000

They had been clustered around the entryway to the alley debating about the merits of Gotham’s Mexican versus its Chinese food when Bruce Wayne had suddenly appeared over Tim’s shoulder and inserted a needle into his neck. They’d been too shocked to react, which was why they’d simply watched, wide eyed and frozen, as Bruce bundled an unconscious Tim into the back seat of the nondescript black car parked at the curb. They had never seen Batman out of his armor before. Conner thought he was just as terrifying. 

“What are you doing?” Cassie had finally exclaimed, almost screaming, just as Bruce had opened the driver’s door. He looked at her as if noticing her for the first time. 

“Parenting,” he replied, as if it was completely obvious. Then he’d gotten in the car and driven off. The whole thing took less than thirty seconds, a testament to Bruce’s efficient planning. 

They stood there staring at each other for a solid ten seconds wondering at what they had just allowed to happen before Conner had burst out with, “Oh my god! Should we call someone?”

“We should call someone!” Bart exclaimed, scrambling for his phone. 

Cassie had called Diana in a complete panic, not entirely sure if Tim was safe or not, half convinced that Batman had finally snapped. Diana had calmed her down and then, after hanging up with Cassie had made two of her own phone calls. Her first had been to Bruce’s cell phone which had gone straight to voicemail and the second had been to Clark who didn’t answer because he was still on the phone with a panicked Conner. 

Conner took considerably longer to calm down but Clark had assured him that Tim was fine, he’d seen this type of thing happen before, and he’d ask Bruce to have Tim contact them when he woke up, which, Clark warned, could take up to eighteen hours depending on how long Tim had been awake for. When he had gotten off the phone with Conner, he’d called Diana back and they had spent another half hour wondering if he should also call Bruce and make sure everything was okay. 

Clark did eventually call Bruce and his call was also sent to voicemail.

Meanwhile, Bart had called Jay Garrick convinced that Tim was being beaten up somewhere for defying Batman and while his story was ludicrous, he had sounded scared enough that Jay had called Wally to ask him what was going on. Wally, instead of calling Bart, had actually sped over to the alleyway in Gotham City that they were still standing in, and had heard the story firsthand from all three of them. Not concerned in the slightest, he still called Dick to tell him what Bruce had done and would he please ask him to not do that again in front of the kids? It freaked them out. 

Dick, laughing harder than he had in weeks, had agreed and then called Alfred’s cell phone, bypassing Bruce completely. Alfred’s phone had also gone to voicemail which Dick suspected was because he was giving Tim an IV bag to replace whatever nutrients he’d lost in this latest round of all-nighters. He’d left an amused voicemail which he expected would reach the man in a few hours. He’d then texted the entire saga to Barbara who didn’t answer because she had been working but had enjoyed reading about the story on her train ride home that evening, snort laughing in public, and drawing the ire of her fellow passengers. 

About fifteen minutes after he’d texted Barbara, Dick had gotten a phone call from Garth of all people with the news that the story had reached Titans Tower via Bart Allen who had texted Victor for help after not getting the appropriate reaction from Wally. Victor had told Garfield who’d laughed so hard he’d shot orange soda through his nose just as Kory had walked into the room. Victor had explained to Kory what had happened and the whole thing had spiraled from there, spreading through the Titans network too quickly to be stopped.

Clark had been with Hal on the Watch Tower when he’d gotten Conner’s phone call and Hal, who had only heard one side of the conversation, had gone on to tell Oliver that Batman had kidnapped his own kid. The two had proceeded to call Bruce’s cell phone on speakerphone with every intent of making fun of him but Hal could barely get a sentence out before dissolving into hysterics resulting in a two minute long voicemail of Oliver telling the laughing Hal to get a grip on himself, he was being recorded. 

J’onn happened to overhear the whole thing and proceeded to ask Dinah and Zatanna if their good friend Batman was in the habit of kidnapping Robins. He had been entirely joking of course, but a table of new recruits in the cafeteria had overheard and the next thing anyone knew, the entire superhero community had heard about Batman kidnapping Robin off the streets of Gotham City, beating down the several Titans who had tried to defend him (or it was the Justice League depending on which story you heard). 

About six hours after the whole thing started, Bruce finally looked at his cell phone, which had been on silent, and found sixteen unanswered text messages and twelve voicemails only one of which (Clark’s) expressed any genuine amount of concern. He had rolled his eyes in disgust at Hal’s incoherent voicemail and considered blocking the other man’s number.

Tim, who woke up about fourteen hours after Bruce had first given him the sedative, had thirty-four missed calls on his cell phone, nineteen voicemails, fifty-six text messages, and three emails. He had wandered into the kitchen of Wayne Manor, his hair sticking up funny in the back, pillow lines still on his face, and asked an annoyed Bruce why his friends kept asking him if he was okay. 

He didn’t actually remember being knocked out. His last memory was agreeing to grab some food with Conner, Cassie, and Bart. He had assumed that he’d fainted from exhaustion and that was why they were so panicked. 

Bruce had told him, in no uncertain terms, that if his friends ever raised that amount of concern over something as trivial as a sedative to the neck again, it would be Tim that would be in trouble. 

Tim believed him such was the look on the man's face. 

To this day, you couldn’t bring up the story unless you wanted to see Dick Grayson laugh so hard he stopped breathing and Bruce Wayne roll his eyes so spectacularly Alfred would tell him they would fall out of his head if he did it again.


End file.
